28 Ritual Of Blood

*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*

Feeling the thick and heavy blood within his stomach rile as though the Law fragments that comprised it could sense their incoming assimilation, Qing Fang wasted no time in moving on to the next step of his awakening.

However, before he did, he turned his head to look at Chu Hua. Seeing that she was still here, Qing Fang commended her somewhat. 'Hmm. Seems like she's not a complete idiot when it comes to her life. The farther I throw her into the abyss, the more useful she will become.'

Chu Hua was still pacing around the room as if she was feeling incredibly uncomfortable. She was completely inseparable from her thoughts such that she didn't even look up from the ground as she paced back and forth.

At this, Qing Fang was still a bit resentful. How could she completely ignore him? Does she no longer perceive him as a threat after considering her situation?

If Chu Hua had perhaps decided to run away and try to survive the pursuit of elite Stage 4 templars alone, Qing Fang would promptly kill her. After all, instead of letting her face the consequences of her decisions if that was the case, he would prefer to make use of the delicious blood running through those supple arms of hers.

Indeed; when avariciously consuming the blood that comprised the head of Wan'er, Qing Fang also revelled in its taste. The strong metallic scent reminiscent of newly-crafted armour coupled with the addictive consistency and the rustic aftertaste had made Qing Fang addicted to it.

He was already obsessed with the smell of the battlefield and the fires of war so it wouldn't be too strange to see his moreish fascination with blood itself. As for whether this new connoisseurial love for blood was related to his natural affinity? Qing Fang hadn't even thought of it.

Throwing this gluttonous feeling to the back of his mind, Qing Fang threw the cold and dead head of Wan'er to the corner of the shack before placing himself back upon the straw mat surrounded by five bodies and two heads.

Crossing his legs and interlocking his fingers before resting his hands on his lap, Qing Fang kept his eyes open as he reentered the world of Laws. Ignoring the beautiful colours separate from him and the five bodies still oozing with fresh blood, Qing Fang observed the brightly shining Laws that made up his body.

His head glowed brightly with the beige light of the Law of Wisdom, the grey light of the Law of Knowledge and the yellow Law of Lightning that made up his brain. Seeing the three colours interlock in harmony with small explosions that could barely be seen occurring thousands of times every second, Qing Fang stared with an observant eye.

Amongst all the other Laws that comprised his physical flesh such as the Law of Water, the Law of Blood, the Law of Movement and the Law of Matter; there was a green wisp of smoke-like light that swirled around his abdomen violently and maliciously.

'Hmm. This karma is quite detestable. It seems that the youth whose blood I drank was quite unhappy with me killing him.' Qing Fang slowly thought within his mind.

This bright green smoke-like light was indeed a fragment of the Law of Karma. Swirling around the blood within his stomach and the blue head in the corner, the karma represented the relationship between the two.

Love and hate were born and destroyed every day within the expansive universe. However, love and hate both had a single thing in common: they were very powerful and strong emotions. The people that were connected by love and hate were intertwined with strong karmic connections. Karma did not reflect morality or whether anything was 'right' or 'wrong', it merely displayed how hated or loved a person was.

From this, one might think that people could obviously choose who to trust from this. However, karmic connections could rarely be seen. They were only present during their birth before they hid away from prying eyes. After all, love and hate are not meant to be comprehended nor monitored.

Karma Path did not exist, people have long tried. But even if it did, one would advance their cultivation by breeding either hate or love of others for oneself, which sounded extremely taxing.

Looking at the fragment Law of Karma already starting to fade away within his body, Qing Fang was greatly interested. Laws were the very building blocks of life, the rules that existence had to abide by. To not be interested in them would be a strange thing.

They were unpredictable, dangerous, calm and mysterious all at the same time. They greatly fascinated Qing Fang in that everything was constituted by Laws, even the very words he spoke and the sound of his breathing were gifted by the Law of Speech. Not only this, Laws were inextricably beautiful. The longer one looked at them, the deeper and more detailed they became.

At times, Qing Fang sometimes thought that even a minuscule fragment of something as common as the Law of Sound contained more profundities than even the most powerful cultivator in the Mortal Realm could hope to even comprehend. The longer you looked, the deeper they became. It was an unending hole of mysterious profundity.

'Hmm, I shouldn't get distracted by my fascination with Laws at a time like this.' Qing Fang thought as he arranged his thoughts while the Law of Karma completely disappeared, invisible to his senses, even that of his divine sense.

The air within the shack was unmoving and silent and it could not be felt moving through the air. The pitifully lit shack, only illuminated by a dozen crude candles, was strangely quiet as no noise from outside could be heard. One might think it strange for a night in the slums to be so quiet, what with drunkards and fools being commonplace with any society.

However, this place was different. The streets were not a safe place for even the residents of them. If one was to stray too far from home, they could be copulating with dogs, cats and small dragons inside a rusty cage to supply the market with demi-humans by next week. It was a rather unsavoury thing that no one would want to be subjected to.

Even someone well versed with the hideous and gross aspects of life wouldn't bear a child with a beast if he didn't have to.

Tasting the stale and dry air on his pores, Qing Fang looked to the mass of red deep within his body. Unlike the native fragment Law of Blood within his body that was moving in concert with every other fragment Law to form the cycle known as human life, there was a slightly different shaded sphere of red light within his body.

Slowly being eroded by the pale-green fragment Law of Acid within his stomach was the foreign fragment Law of Blood belonging to Wan'er. It churned and boiled as it interacted viciously with the Law of Acid. It was almost as if they were in a battle to see which Law survived.

Hesitating no longer, Qing Fang exhaled deeply as he focused his senses on the foreign Law of Blood. Unlike the absorbing of Laws through Law fragment manipulation that was second-nature to him, this was manual absorption, otherwise known as command.

Extending himself out to the Law of Blood spiritually; it, as well as all the other Laws comprising his body, suddenly went silent.

This was a ritual of choosing.

Each of the Laws seemed to freeze in trepidation as the ritual determining which path Qing Fang would embark on was taking place. Theoretically, Qing Fang could extend out to and command a multitude of Laws at this moment. The Laws neither welcomed nor protested the prospect of being commanded by this ascending cultivator.

They contained a godly impartiality. Maybe Laws truly were the real gods.

The Law of Acid, the Law of Water, the Law of Wind; the uncountable number of Cultivation Laws that Qing Fang could command at this point in time was immeasurable. However, he already knew which Law he was going to command during the ritual: the Law of Blood. This was the Law with which his affinity rested.

During his previous ascension eight years ago, he ended up choosing to command the Law of Water through a process of elimination since he didn't have a known affinity. But now, he was choosing the path that was inextricably entwined with himself. He felt that he could achieve so much more if he could just reach out and firmly grasp it.

Maybe he was just being hopeful about surpassing his former cultivation. But without hope, without drive, no great men would be born. The malevolent demon seeking to erase all of the prayerful monk seeking to enlighten all; both needed the hope and belief in themselves that they would achieve what they strived for.

Being hopeful was at often times foolish, but a complete void of hope was even more so. As without it, who would have a heart of self-sacrifice?

Reaching out with his soul, or human essence as he knew it at the time of his first ascension, he forcefully ordered the blood with a commanding disposition. Sensing that it was picked during the ritual and that it also fulfilled the conditions of being a Cultivation Law and also already ingested in its physical form, the Law of Blood fragments that made up the blood sitting in Qing Fang's stomach started to sway while all the others remained stationary.

It had been chosen.

Since all the Laws comprising Qing Fang's body were still, it would appear as if he was frozen in time back in the physical world. If Chu Hua looked at Qing Fang right now, he would be completely still and almost appear to be dead. However, by the same logic, everything that Qing Fang was witnessing while the Laws that comprised his body were frozen happened while time itself was relatively stopped. Meaning that everything happened in an instant when looking from the physical world, but took an eternity when looking from the world of Laws.

While all others remained still, the Law of Blood slowly crept along Qing Fang's body, diffusing itself evenly along with his entire being. Moving with mesmerisingly slow movements that winded and swirled, the Law of Blood coquettishly wound itself along the very fibre of Qing Fang's being.

In the physical world, the Law of Blood would be assimilating itself into Qing Fang's body, turning him into a Blood path cultivator. However, from the world of Laws, the Law of Blood seemed to be coagulating itself into the form of his body. What was a being made from the light of Laws was slowly turning into a semi-solid figure made from the Law of Blood itself, however, it was extremely diffused, thin and weak.

However, such was a mere Stage 1 cultivator.

Once the blood had fully coagulated to form his body, he would once again become a cultivator. This was the second time that Qing Fang was gaining a material body in the world of Laws and it was one of the most sacred processes of cultivation.

The construction of the dao body within the world of Laws.

Turning from a mere being of light to be able to touch and interact with the world of Laws. That was what becoming a cultivator truly was.

There was another name for this, the third and the most sacred step of cultivation: binding.

This was the process of assimilating Laws into oneself and increasing the number of Law fragments that made up their body. In other words, binding was cultivation itself. It was increasing one's power and presence, the strength of their dao body, within the world of Laws.

Qing Fang watched the Law of Blood slowly turn from an incorporeal mass of light into a solid mass of liquid-solid that had an appearance of ceramic but an elasticity of rubber with a fanatical look in his eyes. For someone like Qing Fang, watching his very power increase before his eyes were the greatest spectacle to behold.

This was an ascension to something more than a being made from mere flesh and blood. It was apotheosis itself.

Seeing the light start to solidify, Qing Fang was overly eager. Once it was fully corporeal, he would finally be a Blood path cultivator.

However, his brows suddenly furrowed.

'What is this feeling? What is going on?' Qing Fang felt his body tingle numbly all of a sudden. It was like having pins and needles all over one's body. It was a strange feeling that made Qing Fang feel light-headed and like he was perpetually swaying. It was almost similar to the feeling a drunk person had when they got into their bed after yearning for it. They felt like they were sinking into the mattress and that their head was unimaginably heavy, but in a comfortable way.

'Something has gone wrong.' Qing Fang was extremely nervous all of a sudden. After all, many things could go wrong during the first binding, awakening, and a single mistake in cultivation could potentially kill him. While bearing immense gifts, cultivation is a practice that, if ill-taught, can be ruthlessly lethal.

Instead of ruthless, indiscriminate would be a better term.

'I need to quickly find out what's wrong and promptly salvage m...'

Before he could finish his words, Qing Fang's heart suddenly pumped heavily and loudly, causing his eyes to shrink to pin-size as a face full of pure disbelief took over.

With slow movements portraying his fright, Qing Fang lifted his hand up in front of his face, and his eyes quickly flashed with unimaginable shock and speechlessness.

What he was looking at appeared to be his arm in the world of Laws, comprised of many different colours with a red ceramic forming his body within them. Nothing appeared to be wrong, as all seemed to be functioning as it should.

However, within the Law of Blood that was forming into his dao body, Qing Fang felt something from the blood that he hadn't sensed prior.

It was...something indescribable. Something similar to blood, but...more. It was as though he was looking at a piece of metal and only realising just now that he could also see his reflection in it.

'What the fu-'

Before Qing Fang could finish his thought, an immense pain suddenly riddled his entire body.

From his head to his limbs, to his entire body. No part of him was spared of the pain. His eyes, his teeth, his nose and even his genitals; no part of him, no matter how small, was spared. Every single part of him pulsed with an unimaginable pain that was sent over in waves with every heartbeat.

Qing Fang's heart was pounding like thunder in his ears as blood rushed to his eyes in the physical world, immediately turning them bloodshot. Grating his teeth, Qing Fang tried with all his might to not roar out in pain.

His jaw was clenched so tight that blood flowed from his gums and dyed his entire mouth a deep red, making him look like a demon that feasted on flesh. His fists were also clenched tightly; so much so that his knuckles had gone completely white and his blunt nails had pierced the supposedly thick skin of his palms and caused trickles of blood to flow incessantly.

Qing Fang's heart constantly sped up in his ears. Faster and faster and faster until it seemed like it was about to fail and burst. The pain that pulsed with every beat was almost constant now, causing Qing Fang to foam at the mouth from trying to withstand it.

A faint cracking was heard as one of Qing Fang's teeth was split down the middle from the huge pressure. However, simply unable to relax his jaw while enduring a pain this great, the two halves of the tooth were pushed deep into his gums; making his mouth even more bloody. Although the pain was massive, Qing Fang couldn't feel it as it was drowned out by the torturous pain he was experiencing.

His heartbeat sped up again. Faster and faster and faster.

As the pain was building and the thunderous echoes of his heart in his ears was deafening him into insanity, Qing Fang' heartbeat was beating so fast that it had almost blended into a constant and unceasing beat!

His bloodshot eyes could not even comprehend what was happening as his entire being was focused solely on withstanding this inhuman pain.

Qing Fang's thoughts were on nothing but enduring this torture that he was feeling. He couldn't even organize his mind to form a single thought other than the pain in his head.

His skin tone was getting redder and redder as his heart was beating faster and faster while his eyes became deader and deader until...

"AHHHHHHHHH!!!"

A loud thump followed by a squelch surfaced from Qing Fang's heart as it exploded within his chest! Qing Fang's eyes rolled back into his skull and nearly burst as his head cocked back and an insane screech surfaced from his wide-open bloody mouth.

Qing Fang screamed to the sky with all the strength he could muster while clutching his chest so tightly that he tore off his clothes and even his skin to expose his ribcage!

"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The scream was constant as Qing Fang clawed at his eyes and pulled them out of their sockets, crushing them in his hands into a red and white slush of flesh!

He pulled at his hair so roughly that parts of his scalp were ripped off, revealing a white skull covered in blood!

*3,004/3,000 words*